killing time

Not much has happened over the last two days. We weren't allowed to take the car out for testing today and we have been having some problems so we pulled the engine and replaced the starter and clutch. Unfortunately the small size of the car means only a few people at a time can work on it so there is lots of down time but we aren't in the city so I can't go explore during said down time. The car is running great unloaded, we'll see tomorrow if it is running well under load. Went for a run today, it's a great way to explore the town early in the morning. Unfortunately the school turned off the boiler for the summer so there is no hot water, aka no warm showers. The laundry mats are expensive also so all clothing is being washed in the sink which takes a long time.

Tomorrow will be the first day of testing with both cars and two other universities from what I understand, should be really fun.

"I woke up in the mornin' with a spinnin' head..."

The beer definitely got the best of me last night. Going to try and not do that again. One funny thing to note about the party was the parking. The parking garage had low clearance and one of the vans kinda hit the ceiling once we got inside, and yes the driver did hit the clearance warning sign. It was remedied by putting all 12 people in the van to get it another 1/2"-1" lower and then slowly drive under the ceiling support while scraping the fiberglass roof. Anyways, back on topic, today was assemble the car day. Unfortunately on the drive over the bolt storage locker was not strapped shut and presto, everything ended up mixed up on the floor. It took a good 4 hours with two people to sort everything out inside a box in the sun...good hangover work, very simple to do. Besides, they had a good motivating poster.



Eventually back at the school we continue and are still working on it (currently 2:30am) because of starting/idling problems which we can't figure out the source of because the car was running fine before we boxed it up. The BA car on the other hand is probably running very well. It is quite a bit different from ours with the 92hp 4cyl engine and weight of around 475lbs. One thing about europeans is they are very image conscious and it shows on their car. Their steering wheel is the same as ours but it looks like it was taken off a show car. Little details are everywhere like some stainless buttons with a light up halo around them, a super nice cnc'd gas pedal with "kick it" machined into it. Their seat looks so amazing and super comfortable. Next year's car should be pretty amazing with all of our knowledge of vehicle dynamics and weight reduction and their practically bottomless pockets, electronics knowledge, and eye for style.

Fuck baggage handlers

The plane flight over was fine, it actually seemed a little short. From Philly to Germany it only took a little over 7 hours. Unfortunately my baggage wasn't so lucky, my brand new bag was completely destroyed and some of my cloths fell out the gigantic hole in the side of it. Luckily it arrived at all and the back pack straps aren't too damaged so I should be able to buy a duffel bag and place it inside the backpack bag for the duration of the trip.


We arrived at 7:30am German time, about an hour early so we had a long wait until our ride showed up. Being Switzerland while waiting at the airport a Lamborghini Giardo drove by and almost hit one of our members. We took a ferry across a lake to get to our destination and wow, perfect introduction to beautiful European architecture.


The BA is a very wealthy university with many sugar daddy sponsors. For example the brand new van we rode from the airport in was given to them after doing well at their last competition and when we arrived we saw a 2006ish Mercedes SLK which was given to them for a student project! We saw their support truck which has a super nice tool/part storage system inside and has a hydraulic lift gate about 7'x5' which can probably lift 1000+lbs. Their shop is immaculate with some very very expensive CNC's but not much else, it works for them as most of their parts are made by other companies unlike at OSU. They also have a ton of cool displays around the school like a BMW M10 engine cutaway with a steering wheel mounted to the flywheel so you can turn it and see how everything in the engine works.


Once in town no time was wasted and we got some Donner Kebap and then went to a beer garden.

Later that night we went off to some town for the last night of a festival involving lots of beer and fireworks. Much beer was consumed and fun times were had all around, those Germans sure like to party and smash glass bottles/mugs like the spanish.

Wo gibt es die zitrone hamorriden?

Off to the airport in 4 hours. Flying to Philly and then to Zurich, Switzerland; it's going to be a long day. So far I found I forgot a sleeping pad and higher cut socks to wear with pants. Unfortunately my video camera didn't come in time along with a few 72mm filters I ordered for my SLR. I got really lucky and found a circular polarizing filter at the Tualatin Best Buy, amazingly no one in town had any 72mm filters. Actually I was really lucky and even though I got there just after they closed, since there were still shoppers in the store they let me in.

I've been practicing my German a little, with in a few hours I should be proficiently obnoxious while intoxicated.

No Sleep 'Till...duh duh duh...Zurich!

Reason behind the name

"The goat left before we passed out, I swear."

Perks of working at a bike shop, annual camping trip with a paid day of work to everyone who shows up. I don't work there anymore, too busy with other things this summer, but I tagged along regardless.

We had a pretty sweet camping spot, very isolated from other campers. A keg, lots of food and bacon, everything was going so well until the damn rednecks started riding their dirt bikes around at 6am on the road 20 feet from our camp site.

Around 10am we went on a nice bike ride up to the Bryce Creek falls, the climb up on a 35lb, 6" travel "XC" bike was hell. Probably around 2 miles of seriously steep trail. I've never used the 22/32 ratio on my bike before and it turned out to be just low enough for the trail. Once at the top you are rewarded with a picturesque scene and a fast/fun downhill. After all that you can relax in one amazing swimming hole with water falls, a cliff to dive off, and rocks to bake on if you so please.